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In your opinion, is there any 'minimum' income required before an individual 'should' be saving and investing? I doubt anyone would seriously contend that homeless Americans have income capacity to invest. My readings suggest that Dr Thomas Stanley - co-author of The Millionaire Next Door - didn't expect individuals to invest at annual incomes below about $40K.
How about minimum wage earners? Do they have discretionary income to invest? Does it depend on their local COL?
No, I wouldn’t expect a minimum wage worker to save and invest. In fact, I would advise against it because there’s more valuable uses of their funds today above trying to create wealth with such a low wage.I didn’t start investing in my 401k until I got into a career.
I would expect a minimum wage worker to productively use their time to get into a higher paying path. I remember the point during my finance education when I realized avoiding debt and trying to pay for school as I went was hopeless and less than optimal. Why try to pay for school at 8 dollars an hour when I can pay for it later making 30+ dollars an hour?
Every second you spend here complaining about rent and pay is self destructive waste of time and mental capacity. And time is the most valuable thing we have.
“Just because you’re doing a lot. Doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot done. Don’t confuse movement with progress.” Denzel Washington
Why would you include babies and teenagers who don't actually participate?
To keep the numbers from becoming ridiculous. Eliminate the people below and above the working age cohorts, the halt and the lame, the incarcerated, and the ones elected to political office, and the average would rise to a half a million dollars per person. A frightening number that make even the most jaded sit up and take notice. And we don't want anyone to sit up and take notice of this travesty of economics that works so well for our keepers.
Most apologists for the system do not recognize the huge difference between "Anyone can become rich" and "Everyone can become rich".
If you want to fix the income stratification problem that causes all the wealth stratification, you need to create a labor shortage for unskilled/semi-skilled labor. Those where the economic conditions in 1950 when repetitive task jobs paid middle class wages. If you deport every illegal and shut down legal immigration, cleaning the toilets will pay $20.00/hour since nobody wants to do it. The rest of us pay much more for services and the standard of living for people with 21st century job skills drops. Economic growth slows.
Or you can insist that people actually educate themselves so they have 21st century job skills. That's what Asian countries do.
I decided early on I didn't want to be destitute and worked hard enough so it didn't happen to me. At 30, I didn't buy/lease cars I couldn't afford, buy new cell phones every 2 years, buy a 60 inch TV, or have kids out of wedlock. Dumb decisions cause poverty. That and people who don't invest in themselves by developing marketable skills. I have a hard time having empathy for many people.
If you want to fix the income stratification problem that causes all the wealth stratification,
you need to create a labor shortage for unskilled/semi-skilled labor.
Certainly a 'shortage' relative to the excess we have now.
The real answer though is in striking a balance between the number of no/low skilled
who are competing for those jobs (and which we'll never be rid of)...
and the steadily declining number of those jobs. We CAN do this.
Quote:
Or you can insist that people actually educate themselves
so they have 21st century job skills. That's what Asian countries do.
It's a nice notion.
But increasing the raw number of those qualified to do job X mostly just devalues the wage rate of those
who are already doing job X. The net effect being just so much balloon squeezing.
The real answer here is ALSO in striking a balance between the raw number of worker hours available --at each skill level--
and the number of work hours that are actually needed to be worked. We CAN do this too.
--
So ask yourselves... what public policies does the US have that could achieve these goals?
And what public policies does the US have that actually work against them?
Certainly a 'shortage' relative to the excess we have now.
The real answer though is in striking a balance between the number of no/low skilled
who are competing for those jobs (and which we'll never be rid of)...
and the steadily declining number of those jobs. We CAN do this.
It's a nice notion.
But increasing the raw number of those qualified to do job X mostly just devalues the wage rate of those
who are already doing job X. The net effect being just so much balloon squeezing.
The real answer here is ALSO in striking a balance between the raw number of worker hours available --at each skill level--
and the number of work hours that are actually needed to be worked. We CAN do this too.
--
So ask yourselves... what public policies does the US have that could achieve these goals?
And what public policies does the US have that actually work against them?
Many countries allow only immigrants who have skills to offer which are in fields with high demand but low supply. So, we could change our legal immigration to take in only skilled people.
We should also eliminate anchor babies (get rid of birthright citizenship) and chain immigration (no, you can't bring in grandma, great grandma, and aunt martha).
And finally, really cut down on illegal immigration. Cut off all federal funding for sanctuary cities and states.
In order to have wealth, you have to spend less than you earn. In order to keep what you have, you must allow your wealth to accumulate at a rate faster than you spend it.
True, of course, but that's only part of the story as it relates to people with net worth greater than $100 Million or so.
You achieve ultra-high-net-worth status by building and growing a business that focuses on solving real customer problems -- even the problems people don't know they had. It is a relentless focus on delivering value to customers that builds businesses, and wealth creation is a byproduct. Wealth is then a measure of how much value is being created for society.
Bill Gates
Sergey Brin & Larry Page
Jeff Bezos
Mark Zuckerberg & Sean Parker
Andrew Mason – Groupon
Larry Ellison
Bill Hewlett & David Packard
Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce & Andy Grove
TJ Rodgers
Dennis Lanfear
David Hitz, James Lau, and Michael Malcolm
Randall Lipps
Pierre Omidyar
Tom Anderson
Jack Dorsey
Elon Musk
The list goes on and on: they focused on the the world as it could be and what customers might need to get there. And of course not every endeavor was successful -- but enough were.
Yeah, head smack all right. Don't know your age, but if over forty and you don't know many w/300K or more net worth, find some new friends.
That was about my net worth at 33, and I thought I was something of a bum. Bought a condo, then more, then more, then...never mind. There comes a point of critical mass where you can start making some real investments with bigger payoffs.
Yeah, bully for me.
Bully for you to associate with those planning for eventual retirement, if that is the question? They should be worth 5x that with good management and savings twenty years later, hopefully 7x or 8x at retirement age.
Exactly!! Op, do you understand the meaning of “net worth”? It doesn’t just include ones salary, but ALL their assets (house, cars, accounts, investments, etc). I would presume everyone knows someone with at least )300k not worth! It’s actually not that much for someone over the age of 30 to obtain! Real estate builds wealth quickly!
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